Nebraskans know the score. Yeah, we don’t have mountains or beaches or any top-tier American cities. We also don’t pay the sky-high rents and mortgages that come with those.
What we do have: Good schools. Nice places to raise a family. Stability. And another crucial part of this thing we call The Good Life: Affordable homes.
We have long had the ability to grab our little piece of the American dream.
But not anymore, not for young adults — not like their parents or grandparents did.
We’re beginning a new series today, Priced Out of The Good Life, that shows how and why the dream of owning that first home has floated out of reach.
One eye-popping stat from the first story: From 2020 to 2024, Nebraska home prices grew an astonishing 72 times faster than our paychecks!
The series, including the first story today, also will show the human cost of being priced out — and how it matters in Lincoln, in Omaha and in smaller cities and towns across Nebraska.
This is great work led by Natalia Alamdari and powered by the data findings of Destiny Herbers. Check out the first story.
Also, look at this handy-dandy Nebraska housing calculator that Destiny built. Can you afford an “affordable” home in Nebraska?
School board members missing school board meetings? Flatwater fellow Emma Croteau recently did a smart thing — she looked at school board member attendance rates in the Omaha and Lincoln metros over the past few years.
She found something interesting: Two Omaha Public Schools board members, both of whom represent parts of North Omaha, have each missed nearly a quarter of board meetings since the start of 2023. That’s far more than every other board member in Omaha, Lincoln and surrounding school districts.
Both of those board members, Bri Full and Ricky Smith, cite health problems as a reason for their absences.
Smith, in particular, seems to me to have a strong case: life-threatening sepsis, two hospitalizations and physical and occupational therapy.
Experts and other school board members interviewed by Croteau detailed to her why school board attendance is crucial. And the constituents she talked to worried: Are North Omaha voices being heard?
More than a bar: Presumably, there are no bananas at Banana Rams. But you can find many other things there, although to be clear, the main thing they sell there is booze.
In the tiny little village of Hordville, a place where the grocery store closed and the restaurant closed and the school closed, Banana Rams has become popular with locals and visitors alike — and serving as a community meeting place and a town rallying cry, too.
It’s the first story from our newest reporter, Pierce Gentry, who started earlier this month, is based in Kearney and will cover the Tri-Cities and surrounding areas for Flatwater. Pierce represents an important milestone for Flatwater … our first full-time reporter based in Greater Nebraska. Welcome, Pierce!
Comings and goings: Our executive director, Matt Wynn, has a new column on our homepage today. In it, he mourns the departure of our very first managing editor — a sadness I very much share, because Ryan Hoffman is great — celebrates Ryan’s new gig and then unveils our brand-spanking-new managing editor!
It’s chock full of news. Read it here.
See you at Maha Music Festival! For the first time, Flatwater will officially be at Nebraska’s preeminent music festival. We’ll be talking to concertgoers and doing some cool interactive journalism stuff at the Maha Community Village. It’s coming up quick, Aug. 8! Join us.
FlatFest upcoming: You want to party with us in a barn. You want to meet and listen to famed journalist George Packer. You want to quiz Flatwater journalists and listen to Matt Wynn and me talk a bit onstage about this crazy thing we co-founded five years ago.
If any of those things are true, join us at our fifth birthday party, also known as the Flatwater Free Press Festival (code name: FlatFest). It’s in a cool barn in the greater Lincoln metro area. I will be there. I will be wearing my new blazer. Hope to see you there, too! Learn more and buy your tickets here.
More than just a few bad apples: Flatwater reporter Sara Gentzler has unearthed so much news about the sad situation at the state-run Kearney youth treatment center. Her newest story this week, based on a new independent investigation, shows that the allegations of sexual abuse at the Kearney YRTC are far more widespread than previously known.
Questions wanted: Some of our best story ideas come from readers, and they typically start with a burning question that just cries out for an answer. Have a question that our reporters need to look into? Reach our newsroom at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Matthew Hansen, Executive Editor
Thanks to this week’s sponsor
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Here’s what we’re into this week: News from around Nebraska
Every week, we like to share great Nebraska journalism, no matter who made it. Here’s what caught our eye this week:
- The making of a movie meant to tell the seminal Nebraska story of Chief Standing Bear — a movie based on a non-fiction hit by Nebraska journalist and author Joe Starita — is in limbo thanks to slowed state payments, reports the Journal Star’s Anna Kleiber. (You may need LJS subscriber info to read this story.)
This gives me a reason to tell you to read Starita’s “I Am A Man” — one of my favorite books ever written about Nebraska — as we wait to see if it makes it to the big screen. Here’s a couple local bookstores that usually have it in stock: Francie & Finch in Lincoln and Omaha’s The Bookworm. - I mentioned last week that former Sen. Ben Sasse and Melissa Sasse would be sitting down with CNN’s Jake Tapper as the former Nebraska senator faces terminal cancer. Here’s the audio of that entire episode.
And here is a shorter video version of that conversation about life and death. - Speaking of CNN, I was digging this this morning: Want to cut through the b.s. and simply find out if everything costs more than last year? Are eggs really cheaper, as President Trump says? Is everything else more expensive? Here’s a handy-dandy guide.
- Here’s a good, thought-provoking one from Nebraska Public Media veteran Bill Kelly: Is a higher minimum wage hurting Nebraska teenagers?
- Our “Priced Out of The Good Life” story today includes comments from Rep. Mike Flood, who sponsored a housing bill in Congress that recently became law. If you want to know more about that bill and its impact, here’s an explainer from Nebraska Public Media’s Theodore Ball.
- The weirdest battle between people who look like puppet candidates supporting Dan Osborn and Pete Ricketts continues, where it was always going to continue … in court. Story by the Examiner’s Juan Salinas II.
Here is Flatwater reporter Andrew Wegley’s May story on one of those aforementioned candidates, small-town pastor and unlikely Democrat William Forbes. - The counties that house Lincoln and Grand Island are turning to gaming tax revenue in an attempt to minimize their property tax increases, reports NPM’s Maddie Ames.
- And finally, speaking of Maha Music Festival … Omaha’s own Conor Oberst and his famed band Bright Eyes are playing the festival this year. Here he talks to the New York Times’ PopCast about how he nearly died a few years ago — and why he’s getting back down to work now.
